Forget Ikea. Go the whole Meccano hog

Ikea may have blazed a trail with self-assembly design, but the newest designer trend, Meccano build-it-yourself furniture, takes the original boys toy to a whole new level. Grown up construction geeks can now create the colourful range of modular pieces for practical domestic use.The range includes chairs, stools and tables.

The company, meccanohome.com, is France-based and launched Meccano Home at last September’s Maison et Objet interiors trade fair two years after a Polish designer Oskar Zieta created a collection called 3+ constructed from hollow plates of white, black or grey powder-coated steel that looked to be Meccano-inspired.

While you can customise the pieces and repurpose the components if you get bored they are pricey to buy. The chairs cost €259, the stools from €228 to €350; the desk or dining table, €553 and coffee tables from €323 from UK-based Amara Living (amara.com)

You can mix and match the bright shades to produce useable tables, chairs, storage and lighting and each piece is strong enough to serve its purpose.

The construction sets will certainly appeal to DIY lovers and bachelor pad owners. But is the furniture functional? Are the chairs even comfortable to sit on? Brian Gillivan, furniture buyer at Arnotts, is unconvinced. Eighty per cent of his customer base is female. "I couldn't see any ladies allowing it into their homes, the main rooms in the home, the sitting room or living room." But it could look great in a playroom, boy's room, or an industrial space.

British in origin Meccano was invented in 1898 by Frank Hornby, a father of two young boys, he created a system of nuts, bolts and parts to allow the boys build miniature cranes like the ones they saw loading and unloading ships on the docks in the port of Liverpool.